Directed by: James Demonaco
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane, Edwin Hodge, Rhys Sylvester
The Purge begins with a premise and introduces a moral dilemma for its characters that it doesn't bother to see through to a conclusion. It becomes a slasher film with lots of blood, stabbings, and shootings. It is interested more in having things jump out at people in the dark. The Purge is probably a film that wowed 'em at the pitch meeting, but the finished product shows plenty of things wrong in the execution.
It is America in 2022. Crime rates are down to about 1% and the economy is booming, mostly because the U.S. Government has sanctioned an annual ritual called The Purge, in which all crime is made legal for a 12-hour period, including murder. The government believes that this annual purge will allow for people to rid themselves of their pent-up hostility and thus reduce crime. I'm not sure how many psychologists would agree with this assessment, but we'll go with it. I won't even factor in the possibility of retaliatory crimes following the purge and the untold amounts of damage which will result in claims that bankrupt the nation's insurance companies. I'll just be a good sport and plow ahead.
The film focuses on the Sandin family, with father James (Hawke) as a rich security system salesman
who sells high-tech systems that will protect families from nights like the purge. He has sold one to every family in his affluent neighborhood and, as he is building a new wing to his home, his neighbors can't help but look on in envy and feel that he is somehow profiting off of them. Well, duh. But at least he's selling them something that might keep them safe or heaven forbid save their lives. Could you imagine the shit he would have to hear about if he were a tobacco company executive?
James' family includes his wife Mary (Headey), who looks kinda on the fence about this whole purge thing, and his two children Zoe (Kane) and Charlie (Burkholder), who plays around with a creepy robot on wheels that sneaks up on people. James is a supporter of the purge, mostly because it enriches him when he sells the security systems. He wishes, however, to hunker down and ride out the night in his vault-like home. With the house on lockdown, the Sandins are happy to ride out the mayhem. However, Zoe's boyfriend is in the house and wants to have a talk with her dad, who doesn't like him very much. The boyfriend soon gives Dad a very good reason not to like him.
Charlie, who questions why his parents support the purge, sees a wounded black man screaming for help on the street and decides to let the stranger in. The stranger is bloodied and beaten, but is he really a victim of crime or is he hatching an elaborate plan to kill the Sandins? That question is answered when a polite stranger knocks on the door with an army of masked loonies requesting that the Sandins turn over the man they let in. It seems the man was their intended victim and he escaped, so they want him turned over so they could finish their "right to purge". The polite guy isn't given a name, but with his slicked back blonde hair, fraternity jacket, manners, and arch dialogue, he may as well be wearing a "Hi, I'm a villain," shirt.
The moral dilemma is set up now. Do the Sandins simply hand over the stranger to the polite psychopath to die, or do they risk their lives to protect him because it's the right thing to do? Another question I have is: Can't the masked loonies and the polite guy simply find another victim instead of wasting time trying to get at this one? Then again, applying logic to a night where crime is legal and people destroy things is probably the last thing on anyone's mind.
Up until this point, I was with the movie. I wanted to see where it would go and I was intrigued, but then the film quickly devolves into a violent mess. The black man is never developed into anyone we should care about and wasn't even given a name. The masked people somehow manage to get a hold of a tank which plows through the locked down doors and windows and the bloodbath begins. What a letdown. People die in the bloodiest and most brutal ways. The envious neighbors even join in on the excitement. The Sandins aren't developed into people we should identify with either.
The film builds to a certain point of suspense and then becomes a high-concept slasher film. We begin to see holes in the premise we might've overlooked if the movie decided somehow to deal with them. For instance, the neighbors join in on the attempt to kill the Sandins for reasons already specified. Do things just go back to normal after the purge is over? Do they all live and let live until the next year's events? If I were the Sandins, I would move away ASAP. And why do the people willing to kill suddenly begin to act like they are in a hypnotic trance? And is all of the mayhem and crime caused during the purge factored into that alleged 1% crime rate? Somehow, I think that number is very, very skewed.
No comments:
Post a Comment